Perspectives on the beautiful game of soccer; fueled by enormous amounts of coffee

Thursday, November 15, 2007

A dream final ruined

America held up their end of the dream Copa Sudamericana final but River Plate did not.

Arsenal de Sarandi beat fellow Argentine side River Plate in penalties to reach the Sudamericana final on Tuesday.

America, who beat Millonarios a day earlier, will host the first leg of the final on Nov. 28. Arsenal will host the second leg on Dec. 5.

This is the third consecutive year that the Sudamericana final will feature a Mexican team and the third time Mexican and Argentine teams have met in a South American club tournament final. Boca Juniors, though, took care of the other two Mexican teams, first beating Cruz Azul in the 2001 Libertadores final and then dispatching of Pumas in the 2005 Sudamericana final.

Arsenal, though, does not quite have the history of Boca or River, but that did not matter in the semifinals of this tournament.

Here's how the Argentine press saw the result:

"Cuenca's Crime"

Incidentally, Arsenal's goalkeeper, the player pictured above, is Mario Cuenca.